It’s Halloween and because it’s that time of year, movie theaters are playing all the spooky and scary films they can get their hands on. I have to admit, 2022 has been a good year for Horror movies. Barbarian, Fresh, The Black Phone, Deadstream, Smile, X, The Last Rite… all were really good.

Now it’s actually Halloween and the film we got released on the last weekend of the month is Prey for the Devil.

It … was an okay film. The movie was sort of like the start of a Charles Dickens book: It was the best of films; it was the worst of films. It was a so-so film. There were some highlights to it, but there were also a lot of moments where it dragged, and I felt bored.

Directed by Daniel Stamm, this film stars Jacqueline Byers as Sister Ann, a nun that gets the opportunity to study with Catholic priests at an exorcism school. Sister Ann comes face to face with a demonic force that’s mysterious tied to her past.

Byers is great as Sister Ann. The support cast is good too with veteran actors Colin Salmon as Father Quinn and Virginia Madsen as Dr. Peters. The other role that was great was Natalie, played by Posy Taylor. Natalie is brought to the exorcism school because she’s been possessed by a demon. You quickly find out that the demon is using her as a means to get Sister Ann’s attention.

The film attempts to explore the reasons why people get possessed and while it doesn’t fail, it also doesn’t completely succeed either.

The film has a lot of jump scares, which isn’t surprising… much like like the jump scares. They come at predictable moments in the film.

There’s quite a bit of CGI, but it’s actually pretty convincing. There’s one moment when (this isn’t too spoiler-y because they show it in the trailers) Natalie is choking on her own hair. But it’s your typical modern day demonic possession film so there’s a lot of crawling on walls and levitating. Once you’ve seen it done once or twice, it’s just comical now.

There was a twist that I didn’t see coming and it was pretty good. I liked the setting of the Catholic hospital/school. It wasn’t something that’s been done thousands of times before.

Overall, this was an okay film and middle of the road exorcist/demonic possession film. If you’re feeling in the mood and want to sneak your trick or treat candy into a theater, Prey for the Devil is your film. Unless you can still watch Smile or Barbarian.

As far as content is concerned, the film is Rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing content, terror, thematic elements, and brief language.

31 Days of Horror Rankings (from best to worst):

1. Deadstream (2022) 
2. Willy’s Wonderland (2021)  
3. Grimcutty (2022)
4. Smile (2022)
5. V/H/S/99 (2022)
6. Watcher (2022)   
7. Virus:32 (2022)
8. The Spine of Night (2021)
9. Mad God (2022)
10. Slaxx (2021)
11. Prey for the Devil (2022)
12. She Will (2022)
13. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
14. Escape Room (2019)
15. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018)
16. The Cellar (2022)  
17. The Last Rite (2021)
18. Terrifier 2 (2022)
19. Hellhole (2022)
20. Antlers (2021)
21. Revealer (2022)  
22. Sissy (2022) 
23. Halloween Ends (2022)
24. Dashcam (2022)
25. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022)
26. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982)
27. The Collingswood Story (2002)
28. Werewolf by Night (2022)
29. Firestarter (2022)
30. The Bunker Game (2022)